Program summary

Rhinos: Built To Last?

Engineered over 50 million years, the rhino is a design classic. Big, fast and feisty, a rhino weighs in at an average two tons and can go from 0-35 miles per hour in just a few seconds. Its impressive horn is sharp enough to rip through an opponent's hide, even though it's only made of matted hair. But brute strength is not its only asset - it also has extraordinarily sensitive hearing and an acute sense of smell.

Rhinos have been on the earth in various forms for 50 million years and lived in many different parts of the world. Now under fire from poachers for their horns (renowned for its aphrodisiac qualities), rhinos are rare and have come to represent the fragility of the natural world.

Rhinos: Built to Last? shows through intimate portraits of the precious few survivors that rhinos aren't fragile beasts at all. Despite their formidable physical presence, they are rarely aggressive and observe their neighbours' territories with respect. Rhino manners range from formal gestures to frightening chases.

Today the world has become an extremely dangerous place for rhinos to live. In less than a quarter of a century 97% of all rhinos have been lost - both to highly lucrative poaching and to the erosion of their natural surroundings. Sophisticated surveillance and protection, along with improved fertility research, is probably the only way to put one of earth's oldest animals back on the evolutionary map.

Massive, powerful and sometimes deadly, the rhino has mesmerised us since we first set eyes on it thousands of years ago. This program looks at how these giant, prehistoric herbivores once lived, and how they might yet thrive - after all, rhinos are built to last.